Maya ruins of Tikal

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Trip Start May 12, 2007 Previous
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  Flores, Guatemala
Thursday, June 7, 2007

We got on board a local minibus when we crossed the border which was heading straight to Flores, an Island by Santa Elena. We knew that we were getting a good deal for the price we paid for the transport as the bus was filled to the rim with locals. After a very bum-numbing ride to Santa Elena, we transferred into a taxi which took us to Los Amigos hostel on Flores. The hostel was pretty cool and laid back. The only annoying things were the amount of pets they had - dogs and parrots - they decided always to get mouthy around 6am! Still, it was a really friendly atmosphere and every evening we got chatting to someone different.
 
The main reason we were in Flores was to do a trip to see Tikal, a set of Maya ruins which are world-famous for their grandness. James and I had a crazy thought and decided to book the sun rise trip which saw us getting up at 2.45am! Eep! Still it was well worth it....

Ruins surrounding the main PLaza

 
We got a minibus to the ruins where the group got moved into a 4 by 4 which saw us all standing up in the back of the truck trying to keep our balance to avoid falling out. We got to Tempe IV, which we climbed al the way to the top just in time to see the sunrise. The view was so beautiful and everyone sat in silence taking it in for around 45 mins (apart from the ever chatting Americans)
 
After we had a bit of brekkie our guide led us around some of the major ruins of the site. All were very different, my favourite being Tempe I (features in all the postcard pictures) Unfortunately, though, we couldn't climb that one as an America lady had died falling off it about 4 years ago. At the end James and I gave our guide, Caeser, a tip as he was absolutely amazing! He had some funny yet interesting stories, like the record time for being lost at the Tikal site was set by a Canadian who got lost for a whopping 9 days!!!
 
We got back to the hostel around 12.30 and went back to bed for a bit. In the evening we relaxed and read our books. Currently I'm reading Anne Franks diary as I had never got around to reading it before. At 8pm most of the hostel sat down to watch our copy of Shrek 3, very very funny!
 
On our final day in Flores we didn't get up to much. We waked south of Flores for about 3km to going around Cueva de Serpiente (Cave of the Serpent) but it wasn't that big so it didn't take long to do. We got a bus at 9pm heading south to Antigua. Here we are going to climb Volcano Pacaya and take in the colonial spirit of the town.
 
More soon xxxx

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The main Plaza

View of Temple I

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